Launch of CentraleSupélec Venture, an early-stage fund dedicated to industrial and environmental transitions, as well as health

CentraleSupélec today unveils CentraleSupélec Venture, its early-stage fund created by the School and its alumni. Having just completed its first closing and targeting a final goal of €25M by early 2024, this new investment structure complements a comprehensive support system for entrepreneurs. With a goal of funding 25 startups, the fund enhances CentraleSupélec's existing support and acceleration programs.

Strong Entrepreneurial DNA

With entrepreneurship ingrained in its DNA, the School has been a pioneer in this field on several occasions, for example, being the first engineering school to establish an incubator in the early 2000s.

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With the support of its Foundation, it now develops a broad program to support innovation and entrepreneurship with a societal dimension, 21st by CentraleSupélec: including scholarships, honor loans, business and scientific coaching, mentoring, experimental grounds, fab labs, etc. CentraleSupélec alumni also boast an impressive track record in creating businesses, both in France and internationally.

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Today, CentraleSupélec Venture will support startups with at least one co-founder from the School's community: graduates, post-docs, master's students, PhD candidates, researchers from the School's laboratories, etc.

With a commitment to investing in innovation in the broadest sense, the fund will pay particular attention to deeptech, health, and industrial and environmental transition projects, by injecting initial tickets ranging from €150,000 to €500,000 in seed phases, across all geographical areas.

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“With a strong ambition for innovation and deeptech, CentraleSupélec Venture will enable the funding of projects aligned with the institution's strategic challenges: environmental transition, health, and industrial sovereignty. This fund complements an already robust entrepreneurship support system, structured around the 21st innovation and support program,” says Romain Soubeyran, CEO of CentraleSupélec.

A Virtuous Model Between the School and Alumni

This investment structure embodies a virtuous partnership between the School and its alumni. The School offers alumni a new opportunity to engage with CentraleSupélec. By investing in this fund, they contribute to the future success of these companies through venture capital investment. This complements other commitments they may have to the School, such as their contributions to the Foundation.

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Also subscribers to the fund, la Fondation CentraleSupélec et l’Association CentraleSupélec Alumni are statutorily entitled to half of the performance fee (carried interest). By allowing them to benefit from a significant portion of the value creation, the fund aims to strengthen the School's resources and influence, thereby creating a virtuous cycle beneficial to its entire ecosystem.

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« Building an environment conducive to entrepreneurial development around its alumni can only strengthen the School's reputation. As CentraleSupélec alumni, we are helping it acquire all the vital resources available to shine both in France and internationally. The fund will now become the spearhead of this strategy, placing disruptive innovations at the heart of this new chapter, » state Jean-Marc Patouillaud and Pierre Martini, both CentraleSupélec alumni, who launched this initiative pro bono.

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Operationally, the fund will be managed by a team built around Cédric Curtil, who has extensive experience in funds, large corporations, and startups. The fund will benefit from the School's exceptionally rich pool of expertise: 18 research laboratories, 4,000 students, over 1,000 of whom are introduced to entrepreneurship each year, 100 projects and startups supported annually, from opportunity identification to scaling up, and hundreds of startups developed across all continents by alumni.